Fantasy Football: Week 1 RB Rankings

Check out Kevin Hanson's top 65 running backs for Week 1 of the 2019 season.

Kevin Hanson | Sep 5, 2019

Fantasy Football: Week 1 RB Rankings /

Kevin Hanson joins SI for the 2019 season. His fantasy rankings have placed him in the Top 20 in each of the past two seasons among all the industry experts tracked by FantasyPros.com, and he has been in the Top 25 in six of the past eight years.

Check out more of Kevin’s rankings: QB, WR, TE, flex, DST and kicker.

The long wait is almost over—Week 1 kicks off in just hours.

In addition to positional and flex rankings, I will highlight a player at each position that I like or dislike for the given week.

One of the running backs that I absolutely love this week is Seattle Seahawks running back Chris Carson.

Carson dominated touches between himself (267) and Rashaad Penny (94) last season. In fact, Mike Davis, who’s now in Chicago, ranked second in touches in Seattle’s backfield last year. While the disparity between Carson and Penny will narrow in 2019, Carson is the clear “1” with Penny still being a distant “2.”

As a huge home favorite (9.0 points), the game script should set up nicely for Carson and the Seattle ground game to run all over the Bengals. The Seahawks were the only team to run the ball on more than half of their plays (52.44 percent) in 2018. Only the Cardinals allowed more fantasy points to opposing running backs last season.

Another slow start for Derrick Henry?

In general, I expect Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry to have a better overall season than he had in 2018. In fact, a bold prediction for 2019 was that Henry will lead the NFL in rushing.

As good as it gets over the final quarter of the season, Henry was absolutely brutal over the first 12 games last year. While I don’t expect a prolonged slow start, Week 1 doesn’t set up for success out of the gates for the bruising back either.

The Titans are one of seven teams with an implied total below 20 points in Week 1. Nearly a touchdown underdog to the ascending Cleveland Browns, it’s possible that the Titans are forced to deviate from their preferred game plan of Henry, Henry and then some more Henry.

In addition, the Titans will begin the first four games of the season without left tackle Taylor Lewan. Henry is still considered a start as a top-24 back (barely), but he’s anything but a must-start this week.

Below are my fantasy football running back rankings for Week 1 (half-PPR scoring):

• RB1: Saquon Barkley, NYG @ DAL
• RB2: Christian McCaffrey, CAR vs LAR
• RB3: Alvin Kamara, NO vs HOU
• RB4: Dalvin Cook, MIN vs ATL
• RB5: Nick Chubb, CLE vs TEN
• RB6: Ezekiel Elliott, DAL vs NYG
• RB7: Chris Carson, SEA vs CIN
• RB8: David Johnson, ARI vs DET
• RB9: Leonard Fournette, JAC vs KC
• RB10: James Conner, PIT @ NE
• RB11: Todd Gurley, LAR @ CAR
• RB12: Le'Veon Bell, NYJ vs BUF
• RB13: Kerryon Johnson, DET @ ARI
• RB14: Mark Ingram, BAL @ MIA
• RB15: Joe Mixon, CIN @ SEA
• RB16: Austin Ekeler, LAC vs IND
• RB17: Aaron Jones, GB @ CHI
• RB18: Devonta Freeman, ATL @ MIN
• RB19: Damien Williams, KC @ JAC
• RB20: Josh Jacobs, OAK vs DEN
• RB21: David Montgomery, CHI vs GB
• RB22: Sony Michel, NE vs PIT
• RB23: Phillip Lindsay, DEN @ OAK
• RB24: Derrick Henry, TEN @ CLE
• RB25: Marlon Mack, IND @ LAC
• RB26: James White, NE vs PIT
• RB27: Tevin Coleman, SF @ TB
• RB28: Duke Johnson, HOU @ NO
• RB29: Miles Sanders, PHI vs WAS
• RB30: Matt Breida, SF @ TB
• RB31: Tarik Cohen, CHI vs GB
• RB32: Latavius Murray, NO vs HOU
• RB33: Derrius Guice, WAS @ PHI
• RB34: Kenyan Drake, MIA vs BAL
• RB35: Jordan Howard, PHI vs WAS
• RB36: Rashaad Penny, SEA vs CIN
• RB37: Royce Freeman, DEN @ OAK
• RB38: LeSean McCoy, KC @ JAC
• RB39: Justin Jackson, LAC vs IND
• RB40: Peyton Barber, TB vs SF
• RB41: Devin Singletary, BUF @ NYJ
• RB42: Dion Lewis, TEN @ CLE
• RB43: Tony Pollard, DAL vs NYG
• RB44: Kalen Ballage, MIA vs BAL
• RB45: Darrell Henderson, LAR @ CAR
• RB46: Justice Hill, BAL @ MIA
• RB47: Nyheim Hines, IND @ LAC
• RB48: Chris Thompson, WAS @ PHI
• RB49: Adrian Peterson, WAS @ PHI
• RB50: C.J. Anderson, DET @ ARI
• RB51: Frank Gore, BUF @ NYJ
• RB52: Jalen Richard, OAK vs DEN
• RB53: Jaylen Samuels, PIT @ NE
• RB54: Ty Montgomery, NYJ vs BUF
• RB55: Alexander Mattison, MIN vs ATL
• RB56: Ronald Jones II, TB vs SF
• RB57: Giovani Bernard, CIN @ SEA
• RB58: Carlos Hyde, HOU @ NO
• RB59: Dare Ogunbowale, TB vs SF
• RB60: Mike Davis, CHI vs GB
• RB61: Chase Edmonds, ARI vs DET
• RB62: Ito Smith, ATL @ MIN
• RB63: Malcolm Brown, LAR @ CAR
• RB64: Rex Burkhead, NE vs PIT
• RB65: Darwin Thompson, KC @ JAC

Below are my rankings for those in non-PPR formats:

Published Sep 5, 2019

KEVIN HANSON